Best Ever Albums

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

alelsupreme — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 18:14:35 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 09/21/2015 22:14

I won't let this die

DAY 3

Prince - Pop Life/Hello (1986)
Tindersticks - City Sickness (1993)
D'angelo - The Charade/1000 Deaths (2015)
The Libertines - What A Waster/I Get Along (2002)
Crime - Hot Wire My Heart/Baby You're So Repulsive (1976)

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Applerill — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 22:06:03 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 09/20/2015 02:06

D a y 3 C o m i n g U p ?

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

alelsupreme — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 14:17:05 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 09/19/2015 18:17

Big Country - In A Big Country/All Of Us

The A-Side is a hell of a song. Very 80's, with the big booming drum sound that entails which melds well with the pipe-like guitar and vocal into building up the musical equivalent of the "big country" the lyrics reference. The B-side's good as well.

3.5

Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye

Soft Cell were one of the first bands that I got into, when I was in my synthpop kick. Even got Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret on CD. This was one of the standouts, this versions a little different (Marc enunciates his words a bit clearer), but is just as great. Dave Bell builds up some gorgeous synth backing, and Marc's vocals are warm and passionate. The B-Side is an instrumental, with a clarinet accompaniment. Not very interesting.

3.0

Depeche Mode - Halo

My general impression off of Depeche Mode is that they do good, but not great, dark synth pop songs. This is one such song.

3.0

David Bowie - John, I'm Only Dancing/Hang On To Yourself

Decent, if not amazing tunes from Bowie's glam rock era. Not much to say.

3.0

The Sisters Of Mercy - This Corrosion/Torch

A-Side was kinda lame. Guitar sounded like (and probably was) MIDI, which is pretty much never a good sound. Suppose it wasn't all bad, but it wasn't very good either. The B-side was an ugly, downbeat ballad - the singers got a horrid low-pitched voice, and, once again, the guitar sounds like it came from one of those keyboards you play in secondary school music class.

2.0

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Applerill — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 20:58:56 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 09/19/2015 00:58

Listened last night.

SuedeSwede wrote:

I suck...

Today's 5 singles are:

Big Country - In a Big Country / All of Us (1983)Innofensive
Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (1982)Boring
Depeche Mode - Halo (1990)Fun
David Bowie - John, I'm Only Dancing / Hang On to Yourself (1972)Very fun
The Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion / Torch (1987)Sexy

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

SuedeSwede — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:38:31 GMT

Author: SuedeSwede

Posted: 09/18/2015 23:38

I suck...

Today's 5 singles are:

Big Country - In a Big Country / All of Us (1983)
Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (1982)
Depeche Mode - Halo (1990)
David Bowie - John, I'm Only Dancing / Hang On to Yourself (1972)
The Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion / Torch (1987)

---

R.E.M - The Great Beyond - 2.0
A-side was a snoozefest of a song, just R.E.M. at their blandest, B-side is an okay live performance of an okay song. I'm not a huge fan of R.E.M beyond their early days.

Death Grips - On GP - 3.0
Eh, Death Grips's rock edge just doesn't do it for me. I like this song enough, but I mean I liked the Death Grips' "normal" sound that was kinda going on and not the rocky edge. Still like it, though, just nowhere near as much as the rest of their stuff.

The Antlers - Two - 4.0
Ah, I think I'll always love these. A poignant song, indeed, but it feels a bit stripped of its emotion and out of context as a single. Within the album I'd probably give this a 4.5

Jamie Foxx - Underpass / Film One - 3.5
A lovely new discovery, the synths are to die for. I prefer the A-side, but that's no slight on B. The A-side is really a dark, enveloping song that won me over in the first 10 seconds.

Steppenwolf - The Pusher / Your Wall's Too High - 2.5
Eh. The A-side is nice enough, the B-side is just not my cup of tea at all. I wouldn't object to listening again, but I won't do it voluntarily tyvm. I think permafrost summed it up pretty well, though I dig what's going on a little more than he seemingly did

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

alelsupreme — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:50:57 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 09/18/2015 21:50

R.E.M. - The Great Beyond/Man On The Moon (Live at Glastonbury Festival)

For each album review I'm going to try and address the artist, where appropriate. In this case, I must say R.E.M. are one of those bands I've never quite gotten the big fuss about. Admittedly, I've not heard much (only two albums), but based off of the singles I've heard, they seem a good band, but not the groundbreakers people talk of them as. This A-side kinda follows that line in my eyes it's a good song no doubt, they manage to pull off that more mature, measured alt-rock sound that took off in the late 90's, incorporating atmospherical electronics and strings, but it's nothing spectacular. Though, at this point in their careers, it's probably unfair to expect that. The B-side, which heavily references Andy Kaufman (a movie about whom, I believe, The Great Beyond was written for) has some fairly middling verses with a pretty great chorus. Not too keen on the lyrics, which strike me as kind of... well, middling, fitting in with the choruses.

2.5

Death Grips - On GP

In which MC Ride shouts hard-to-understand lyrics over noisy music.

Lol jk. This is a hell of a track instrumentally - noisy as fuck (I'm not too fussed about uniqueness with noise - how hard it bangs is more important and it fucking bangs here). The more subdued "southern driving rock" as satie calls it allows for a lull (6 minutes of the initial onslaught would be far too much) while keeping that edge and grit. However, this has the unfortunate side effect of muffling many of Stefans lyrics. He's never the most legible shouter (can't really call this rapping or singing, after all), and all the scuzz here doesn't help. He's undoubtedly very passionate, and the lyrics when you read them are perhaps the closest to personal introspection Ride has gotten. But that doesn't count for much when you can't hear them.

3.5

The Antlers - Two

I think Hospice is a great album, and this is, along witb Epilogue and Wake, one of the centrepieces. The relatively chipper instrumental accompaniment is beefed up with percussion and guitar showing the progression of the tragedy n the lyrics which, I feel, are superb, and are far better served by this than by some Kozelek-style depressive dirge (my reviews are just gonna be in direct contrast to what satie's saying aren't they :p)

4

John Foxx - Underpass/Film One

When I first started getting into music, I was well into Synthpop. The A-Side would almost certainly be one of my fave tunes if I was shown it back then. This sort of music is just so cool, I love pretty much anything with these austere piercing synths, and that kick-drum sound, well, anything with a decent melody to back it up - otherwise it just sounds ugly and alien. Shame about the B-side then.

3

Steppenwolf - The Pusher/Your Wall's Too High

The A-Side is pretty much what you'd expect from "late 60's hard rock". As an example of this style, it's nothing spectacular. However, it's hard to fuck up that sort of thing, so yeah it's decent. The B-side, however, just kind of lumbers along, and does nothing to justify it's length.

2.5

EDIT: I'm compiling my reviews in a single list. Reckon it'd be a neat idea if y'all can be bothered.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Applerill — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 08:39:08 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 09/18/2015 12:39

So, what are today's singles?
(Actually, I already know, since I already listened to them all last night, but it would be nice to get the ball rolling anyway)

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Necharsian — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:25:33 GMT

Author: Necharsian

Posted: 09/18/2015 00:25

not going to write paragraphs for every song. but ill rank them

"The Great Beyond" by REM - meh pretty dull. Never listened to a full REM album and this is pretty much why. Its not terrible its just something I would rather not listen to. It exists.

"On GP" by Death Grips - again pretty meh. Ive always thought Death Grips were nowhere near as abrasive as people make them out to be. The high energy parts of the song, which are better the song, just feel pretty lame and the vocals as always, forced. idk ya this is a death grips song. next.

"Two" by The Antlers - heh I still do really love Hospice though I find myself not really needing to listen to it much these days. I think I might hate this song if I just discovered it now. Its kind of annoying. In the context of the album I like it, but even then this and "Bear" have always stuck out as songs I wish they didn't do with the more "outgoing" sound. Wish it was tempered down like "Kettering". And ya I get it, its supposed to be a slow fall into tragedy. But I donno. Just a weird direction. Anyway after bagging on it a bit, I do like it still. So whatever.

"Underpass/Film One" by John Foxx - Underpass is pretty cool. Catchy and dark. My kind of thing. Oh Film One is even better. Underpass is quick, Film One is patient. The video corresponding with the music that I watched was some kind of dystopian future and it fits perfectly. Like a well oil machine continuing its work. Perfect. I loved that.

"The Pusher / Your Wall's Too High" by Steppenwolf - Ah good. The Born to Be Wild guys. The Pusher is fine. Probably would be better if I was with my one friend group, but ya its still not that good. Walls too High is probably worse. This really is not my kind of thing in any way. Pass.

rankings:

John Foxx
The Antlers

Death Grips
Steppenwolf
REM

yeesh well 2 good 3 bad. that's how I see it.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Applerill — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:58:33 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 09/17/2015 20:58

I don't feel like talking about all of them, but Steppenwolf and John Foxx really were the best of the bunch, tracks that have already made my all-time singles list.

The Death Grips and REM singles were good too, though the Antlers are always pretty boring.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:42:05 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/17/2015 17:42

Thursday, September 17, 2015

R.E.M. - The Great Beyond
The stretching out of R.E.M.'s sound to integrate some spacier atmospherics is interesting, I suppose, but I don't really understand the appeal. I've always been diehard for R.E.M.'s very early, punchy jangle pop, and I've always been irritated with their later output, which always seems like this concession to the demands of an aging, bland audience. This is by no means an embarrassment, and as fading away goes, it's more graceful than many manage, but the songwriting, performance, everything, is just kind of color-by-numbers to me. There's no immediacy, and there's never that shift to kind of falling into it that can be summoned up by the start-stop type of dream pop stuff that they've layered under a straightforward, wheezing alt rock single. The "Man on the Moon" B-side is clearly just a bit of a thematic insertion for completists. I think it's one of the better attempts they've made at making slowed down music that still leaves some emotional impact on me, but I don't think there's anything of note I can really summon to say about this at the moment.

Death Grips - On GP
I make no illusions about disliking this band outside of the decent, but not great, Money Store. Another prefacing note - this really isn't a single, but that's best left for my data moderation discussions on RYM. The song itself is just really dumb. For all the emotional and intellectual depth Death Grips fans seem to project onto them for what reason I still do not understand, this is not really that complex or challenging or exciting. The straight-ahead noise rock that opens the track is uninspired, and Ride's vocalizations are just the same as they always fucking are. The shift to a slower tempo is interesting, but it's still just kinda the slightly tingly stoner side of what I call personally "southwest driving rock" where it makes me think of like a weird neo-outlaw country. The transition into the next crescendo is kinda neat, but like come on. This is the Explosions in the Sky of rap music - slowing us down, speeding us up, not really doing anything inventive or new, but doing enough different bland things next to each other for a long enough time that they can claim some kind of over-arcing compositional genius. The video is also obnoxious as fuck.

The Antlers - Two
Listening to this now just makes me embarrassed to have ever been fourteen. Its inoffensive, and the lyrics definitely yank on some heartstrings if you force yourself to listen to them, but this brings up my main gripe with indie rock and this particular sadboy Peter, Bjorn and John approach to it - the performance and the lyrics are held in this kind of juxtaposition to make people think they're smart or clever for listening to it, but it pulls me out of the narrative that's supposedly on display, so the main thing supporting the song, the lyrics, are rendered a meta-joke about my expectations for sad music. Add on the fact that the instrumentation is not very interesting and there's this really useless guitar drone thrown in to differentiate this from the unwashed masses' version of this exact same music (the aforementioned PB&J and Foster the People and maybe even Mumford if I wanted to be nasty). It's all just fashion. There's no attempt at connection. At least "Young Folks" has a fun hook.

John Foxx - Underpass / Film One *Best of the Bunch*
Now we've got something cool going on. I'm a huge sucker for John Foxx. He's one of the absolute best '80s synthpoppers in my opinion, and his bands are all real fun. I think in an alternate universe, I heard this kind of stuff earlier on and just turned into a purist, collecting little cassettes and rarities. I can't get enough of this sound. But noooooo, I had to find Pitchfork and waste my high school years on guitar music and then getting into jazz and becoming insufferable. Okay, to focus on the song itself - it's very direct, and that instrumental hook in the chorus is fucking perfect. The measured austerity that goes past Kraftwerk and keeps up the conceit a little bit more is completely on point. I must say that I much prefer this song in the context of the entire Metamatic LP, which should probably appear on my Top 100 some time soon if it's as good as I remember, but that's not a gripe so much as a gentle reminder to check that out. "Film One" is sort of a quintessential b-side, a weirder playground of sounds that's pretty interesting stuff. I think it's possibly a bit too repetitive in this stripped-down form if I try to isolate it, but that's really me just trying to figure out a criticism to separate myself from the fact that this kind of sound can be done genuinely poorly and still hold a ton of appeal for me, especially after subjecting myself to lame alt rock, shitty memerap, and pompous indie folk.

Steppenwolf - The Pusher / Your Wall's Too High
I'm just not very impressed by this sound. The swirling atmospheres are all the exact fucking same. Take any two psychedelic rock (and I mean the rawking ones, so not your Loves or whatever) records produced by anyone who wasn't early Floyd or maybe Jefferson Airplane on some of their better material, and it's all the same fucking guitar tone, *whoobly whoobly sadooooom* of the guitar at some point, faceless drum beat, and singer sounding like he's trying very meticulously to push a row of marshmallows out of his mouth one at a time in a straight line - this weird like lurching sound that is just so fucking gross. The lyrics are stupid hedonistic hippie bullshit of course, because it's impossible to listen to this music and not hear about how cool everyone is for using weed (seriously, if you complain about Dooo It and think this is interesting music, you are fucking obnoxious as hell). And of course a guitar solo. Great. Looking forward to literally hearing hundreds of versions of this same song as we go through this because acid-fried boomers apparently lost their sense of hearing somewhere along the way, too. The b-side is the other psychedelic rock archetype - backwater bar guitar bouncing back and forth, half-assed group vocals, an up-tempo driven by a piano. Ugh I'm turning this off.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

mickilennial — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:09:42 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 09/17/2015 17:09

I absolutely love “The Great Beyond”, it’s has such a nice string arrangement underneath the typical flare of R.E.M’s college rock-era instrumentation.

I abhor “On GP”. Less said on my end the better I think.

“Two” was a single? I had no idea. Wasn’t even one of the big Antlers songs I absolutely got behind, but then again it takes a while for me to really take to them.

So I’m just finishing up “Underpass” and I quite like the almost John Carpetener synths in the background. Really cool.

The Steppenwolf song was alright but it didn't really make an impression on me.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

meccalecca — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 12:04:40 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 09/17/2015 16:04

I don't have Skype, but will provide input if I can.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

alelsupreme — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:14:01 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 09/17/2015 14:14

Yeah pretty much. I might try and make a list chronicling links to peoples thoughts on them as time goes on (assuming this doesn't die a rapid and ignoble death) but that'll have to be another, separate thread.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 22:50:26 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/17/2015 02:50

i think i'm good on the skype group cause i usually completely ignore my open skype window when i bother to turn the program on. do we just report back to this thread tomorrow with impressions of the five singles posted?

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Necharsian — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 21:52:17 GMT

Author: Necharsian

Posted: 09/17/2015 01:52

sure sounds easy enough to me to just pop in and listen to some stuff. put me in coach

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 21:17:03 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/17/2015 01:17

Count me in. Dunno how often I'll be able to join in the conversation, but it sounds interesting.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:55:59 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/16/2015 23:55

Im down, ill just review the vagina music.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:42:10 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/16/2015 23:42

Ayyyyyyy, I'll be on tonight with my thoughts on the singles. At work right now, but this is pretty great that you all are interested in this!

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

alelsupreme — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:10:16 GMT

Author: alelsupreme

Posted: 09/16/2015 23:10

permafrost wrote:

i can jump in, sure. and the wish is granted - i already live in a foreign country

sick you wanna join the skype group?

also i wouldn't be too certain - soon as you lose those guns were coming right back in, just ask alex jones.

Re: S I N G L E B O Y S listen to the RYM top 2000 singles

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 19:02:30 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 09/16/2015 23:02

alelsupreme wrote:

(also do you wanna join in i'd love to have you abroad)

i can jump in, sure. and the wish is granted - i already live in a foreign country